1. Field
One embodiment of the invention relates to a design/verification aid system and a design/verification aid method for aiding design of a product and verification of the design.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various CAD (computer aided design) systems for aiding design of industrial products have been developed in recent years. This type CAD system can perform a design aid process corresponding to a product assembling job such as addition and movement of parts as well as it can aid a process of generating parts by using geometric models.
A CAE (computer aided engineering) system for verifying design data obtained by the CAD system has been also developed.
In the CAE system, there are executed a pre-process for generating analytic models from geometric models designed by the CAD system and an analysis process. In the pre-process, there are executed a process for calling an analyzable object range from each geometric model, a process for simplifying the geometry of the called geometric model, a process for dividing the simplified geometric model in the form of a mesh, and so on. In the analysis process, there is executed an analysis process for obtaining a stress distribution, a flow velocity distribution, etc. on the basis of the generated analytic models, the inputted boundary conditions, etc.
The CAD system and the CAE system are however usually independent of each other. For this reason, the CAE system needs to retry processing from the pre-process whenever a substantial change occurs in the design of the product, etc.
Moreover, the job of inputting boundary conditions, etc. necessary for analysis must be performed by an analyzing person per se because data sent from the CAD system to the CAE system are only data of geometric models.
It is disclosed by, for example JP-A-2004-213297, a CAD/CAE system having a CAD section and a CAE section cooperating with each other. In the CAD/CAE system, an analytic model corresponding to a geometric model generated by the CAD section is generated by the CAE section.
In the system disclosed in JP-A-2004-213297, however, the CAE section does not support the CAD process concerned with an assembling job such as addition and movement of parts because the CAE section only generates an analytic model corresponding to the geometric model generated by the CAD section. For this reason, the CAE section cannot cooperate with the CAD section any more if the assembling job such as addition and movement of parts is performed in the CAD section. Accordingly, after the CAD process concerned with the assembling job such as addition and movement of parts is performed, the CAD section needs to send all design data to the CAE section so that the CAE section can retry processing from the pre-process.
The invention is achieved under such circumstances. An object of the invention is to provide a design/verification aid system and a design/verification aid method which can rapidly verify design of a product in any design stage of the product.